We trust India, Bharat Biotech has submitted data regularly: WHO on Covaxin EUL

New Delhi: A World Health Organization (WHO) official said on Thursday that we have full faith in the Indian industry which manufactures high quality vaccines. Bharat Biotech is regularly and expeditiously submitting data to a technical committee on Permission for Covaxin vaccine emergency use listing(EUL), the official said. He expressed hope that the committee can send its final recommendation to the WHO by next week.

WHO on covaxin:

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has manufactured Covaxin, an anti-coronavirus vaccine. The company submitted the EOI (Expression of Interest) to the WHO on 19 April for the EUL of this vaccine. A technical advisory group of the United Nations health agency met on Tuesday. The group had sought additional clarification from Bharat Biotech to conduct a final risk-benefit assessment for placing Covaxin on the emergency use list.

Covaxin approval:

Dr. Mariaangela Simao, Assistant Director General (Access to Medicines and Health Products) at WHO, told a press conference in Geneva that India Biotech is collecting data regularly and rapidly. But, he had submitted the last data on October 18. She was responding to a question on the delay in putting Covaxin on the emergency use list, while China's coronavirus vaccines Sinopharm and Sinovac were approved despite a lack of data.

Emergency Use Listing:

Simao said that when the technical advisory group met on October 26 to discuss the EUL for Covaxin, he had sought additional clarification from Bharat Biotech. WHO is in touch with Bharat Biotech and interacts on a daily basis to provide the technical expert group with the data it needs. The WHO has so far allowed emergency use to Pfizer-BioNtech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Sinopharm.

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